Hi Curtis, I watched all your video in few days, from the oldest to the latest. It's incredible the amount of time you put on these videos and all the information you provide for us. Magnificent information and encouraging work. Well done
Thank you SO MUCH for all of your videos! As a military family we move every 3 years and your videos have saved me a lot of headaches and hard lessons when restarting a garden from scratch in new growing zones. Our 5 homeschooled kiddos love your content and are excited to try starting a flower farm when we move again. They'll be using basil as a floral filler. Thank you for your valuable insight and help!!! 💝💗
How much is your seed expense for micro greens on average AND are you able to get the seed year round? (Does your preferred seed company have a stockpile to supply greenhouse growers in winter?)
Lay the flats down between the beds as paths as opposed to bringing in wood chip just an idea - no I am not doing it myself I don't do micro-greens. I do the wood chip thing though, it's free in my area and is turning the clay into beautiful crumbly soil.
This is a great idea. I will probably split test it compared to the chips. My main concern here is there ability to stay static. It's a fluffy material and might move around and make a mess, where the chips will stay put a lot easier.
if you mulch them up before it should work well. although one thought that comes to mind is that the material is designed to retain water so it might get anaerobic and algae infested and act like a sponge.
I'm curious about your sun shoots and pea shoots. Could you do a more in depth episode about those? How did you decide to start growing it? Was it due to demand from chefs or did you have to promote it to them?
Hey there Curtis. Thank you for all the videos. Is it possible for you to place all your video's in a chronological order(playlist)? I like to start at the oldest and work my way up to the newest.
Greetings. If you'll go to the 'videos' tab on his youtube channel and then scroll to the bottom and click the "load more" button, then you will eventually get to the first videos he posted to the channel. All the best.
Love your show Curtis! Question: What type of printer do you have for the clamshells that you sell to grocery stores. How do you know what bar code to use?
There is a whole lot more to this question than one might think. Adding a unique bar code on the label increases the marketing opportunities by 100 X. And takes almost no added effort with the right printer. The bar-code is required by most retailers. It allows the product to be scanned at the register. It also gives the retailer a way to track inventory, set prices easily, notifies management of when to order more product, and tracks waste. It takes almost no time to put a bar-code on a label of a good label printer. The payback is huge. It can also help a producer like Curtis keep track of his inventory and profitability. The $2 marker is great for a small producer selling to just a farmer's market and a few restaurants, I agree.
curtis, how do you grow carrot with yield ? what variety and what to put in ground and how deep to prepare the bed so the carrot won't twice like ginseng ? basically, do you have a crop focus: carrot video ? is turnip cultivated same as carrot ? i am in Germany.. where sometime rains for couple of days in summer and even 13 deg C in summer night, 17 c in summer day time after several days of raining is possible. just happened. thanks andrew
Have you ever tried inter-planting basil in your greenhouse in-between your tomatoes? Tomatoes love basil and assuming that planting/harvesting wouldn't be too labor intensive, that would give you high-dollar basil in winter, wouldn't it?
Hi Curtis, quick question: do you have any trouble with the drip lines delivering hot water to your young plants? Black pipes in the sun must get hot a?
Hi Curtis just got your book and getting into your concepts. In the uk we have Landshare for landowners to register their land for use. I'm sure I'll read your ideas, but what is the best way to get a plot of land. I already rent out an allotment from the council but can't sell from that, so I need a separate venture for the business side. Any ideas?
+Urban Farmer Curtis Stone Sorry mate Know your a busy man will do. My wife is from Canada.. You're setting me on a course of adventure and given me the confidence to go for it. Big up to you.
Thank you for replying. I'm brainstorming market strategies, thinking of targeting ethnic restaurants and little grocery stores, specifically Asian/Hispanic as they tend to work mostly with fresh produce. I'm going to take the leap with microgreens and salad mixes, maybe tomatoes my first year
Awesome info! what is the difference between the sunflower seeds you get and ones for bird seed.. they're both black oil, right? and you sterilize them also so does it make a difference? don't know what you pay but I can get 50lbs for 17dlrs(bird seed)
trust me, don't use bird seed for shoots. They're not meant to be consumed by humans. If it's for your own consumption, try it, I guarantee you'll have a shit germination rate.
do you buy seeds for pea shoots from suppliers or have you ever worked with the bulk dried versions meant for eating? based on the per lb pricing of seed compared to yield they aren't that economical for me, even regrowing them I'm only making a couple bucks per pound, not counting my labor. seasonal demand is high for me but I wonder if its worth it sometimes.
When I watch you harvest your beds I think that eventually your back is going to hurt from that. Consider growing on tables. I think you could make planters from gutters and cover a whole table. You can get plastic top tables 30" by 70" for $50 or so.
On several videos you talk about making $600 or on a bed during the season. If my calculations are correct, using $20/tray of microgreens, a shelf unit that holds 15-20 trays could make that much per month. Maybe you should just do microgreens :)
I came up with an ingenious tactic to kill all of these bugs I've been dealing with last night when I entered the portal...I haven't heard anyone else suggest this so I might make a video on it... but I've had issues with root magoot, centipedes, cabbage worms, and ants, mostly eating my roots. I've observed the issue getting worse as the woodchips in my aisles broke down over the season and now that I'm getting ready for fall it's time to do something about it. they stay in the top 3 inches so what I'm going to do is grind up some new leaf mulch and get some new chips and before I apply them im going to coat the leaves and the chips in diatomaceous earth (the food grade omri shit ofc) and this should take care of all the problems. The DE is basically death in a bag, the surface area is so high and sharp any insect that walks across and comes in contact gets infinitely cut and dies, if you look at it under a microscope it looks like black abysmal hell. might be useful, cheap too.
You're planting these crops inches away from the road? With car exhaust and leaking oil and gas going into the soil? I wouldn't find this plot ideal...
Maann most of these greens are great, but over here in Romania they are like soo, sooo cheap. I was lookin to see what basil means and I was what??? This is so cheap and so everywhere. 42% of Romania population lives in the country side and that means they have pretty much everything you are selling may be not as much as you, but enough for them and their sons/daughters families from the city. Of course there are big cities, but still, specially in the season every green plant, is really, really cheap.
Yes, but it also needs to be eaten frequently enough by consumers. Most of the people eat what they have always been eating a few traditional crops. Crops like broccoli, baby cabbage, arugula, all microgreens etc, that are not traditionally grown here, address a quite narrow segment of the market (growing, but still small). So there's a need to educate the consumers as well.
Hi Curtis, I watched all your video in few days, from the oldest to the latest. It's incredible the amount of time you put on these videos and all the information you provide for us. Magnificent information and encouraging work. Well done
Thank you SO MUCH for all of your videos! As a military family we move every 3 years and your videos have saved me a lot of headaches and hard lessons when restarting a garden from scratch in new growing zones. Our 5 homeschooled kiddos love your content and are excited to try starting a flower farm when we move again. They'll be using basil as a floral filler. Thank you for your valuable insight and help!!! 💝💗
Basil is our most profitable crop. We get $18 a lb wholesale at the health food stores. Watch out for the downey mildew in humid areas.
How much is your seed expense for micro greens on average AND are you able to get the seed year round? (Does your preferred seed company have a stockpile to supply greenhouse growers in winter?)
Do you have a video on pesticides(fungus and bugs) and how you keep your plants healthy?
Lay the flats down between the beds as paths as opposed to bringing in wood chip just an idea - no I am not doing it myself I don't do micro-greens. I do the wood chip thing though, it's free in my area and is turning the clay into beautiful crumbly soil.
This is a great idea. I will probably split test it compared to the chips. My main concern here is there ability to stay static. It's a fluffy material and might move around and make a mess, where the chips will stay put a lot easier.
if you mulch them up before it should work well. although one thought that comes to mind is that the material is designed to retain water so it might get anaerobic and algae infested and act like a sponge.
***** ? Who's this?
Thanks for another great video. Sweet tunes and drone footage!
I'm curious about your sun shoots and pea shoots. Could you do a more in depth episode about those? How did you decide to start growing it? Was it due to demand from chefs or did you have to promote it to them?
More to come. Basically they're a crop you can do all winter and they're profitable. That's why I do them.
Hey there Curtis. Thank you for all the videos. Is it possible for you to place all your video's in a chronological order(playlist)? I like to start at the oldest and work my way up to the newest.
Greetings. If you'll go to the 'videos' tab on his youtube channel and then scroll to the bottom and click the "load more" button, then you will eventually get to the first videos he posted to the channel. All the best.
Love your show Curtis! Question: What type of printer do you have for the clamshells that you sell to grocery stores. How do you know what bar code to use?
I don't use a bar code and it's called a Brother QL-700.
lol. .....lol or a 2 dollar ink marker.
There is a whole lot more to this question than one might think. Adding a unique bar code on the label increases the marketing opportunities by 100 X. And takes almost no added effort with the right printer. The bar-code is required by most retailers. It allows the product to be scanned at the register. It also gives the retailer a way to track inventory, set prices easily, notifies management of when to order more product, and tracks waste. It takes almost no time to put a bar-code on a label of a good label printer. The payback is huge. It can also help a producer like Curtis keep track of his inventory and profitability. The $2 marker is great for a small producer selling to just a farmer's market and a few restaurants, I agree.
curtis,
how do you grow carrot with yield ? what variety and what to put in ground and how deep to prepare the bed so the carrot won't twice like ginseng ? basically, do you have a crop focus: carrot video ? is turnip cultivated same as carrot ? i am in Germany.. where sometime rains for couple of days in summer and even 13 deg C in summer night, 17 c in summer day time after several days of raining is possible. just happened.
thanks
andrew
what production level do you need to achieve before Grocery chains will want to buy your produce?
There is no common quota.
Digging the tunes.
that is good if you are going to grow food for sale then you might as well earth out of your own farm because you have to eat too
Do you not have to add anything back into the soil after harvest?
What arevthose sunflower shoots used for? Never seen people buy the shoots before. Also do younplant cold weather crops?
Yes, we plant cool weather crops. Use Google for the other question my friend.
another advantage of basil is that you don't have to wash it like other greens. So much less labor.
why do some greens need washing while basil not?
Have you ever tried inter-planting basil in your greenhouse in-between your tomatoes? Tomatoes love basil and assuming that planting/harvesting wouldn't be too labor intensive, that would give you high-dollar basil in winter, wouldn't it?
yes, many times. I talk about it in my book.
Hehehe... I'll get there - the book arrived last week. :)
Nate W I
Hi Curtis, quick question: do you have any trouble with the drip lines delivering hot water to your young plants? Black pipes in the sun must get hot a?
I've never noticed it as a problem.
How close were you planting those basil plants apart?
Curtis, what brand of drip irrigation you use and where do you purchase it?
Also is the spacing between lines the same from bed to bed?
Thanks!!
Do you have sections to allow your plants to go to seed or do you purchase seed? Which makes more sense in your opinion thank you
+R. J. Denicola i purchase. Saving isn't worth the time for me. Maybe for some tomatoes and that's it.
awesome channel .
Hi Curtis just got your book and getting into your concepts. In the uk we have Landshare for landowners to register their land for use. I'm sure I'll read your ideas, but what is the best way to get a plot of land. I already rent out an allotment from the council but can't sell from that, so I need a separate venture for the business side. Any ideas?
Just look in the book under How to find and. Save me typing it all out again.
+Urban Farmer Curtis Stone Sorry mate
Know your a busy man will do. My wife is from Canada.. You're setting me on a course of adventure and given me the confidence to go for it. Big up to you.
For grocery stores do you approach the big names or the mom and pop stores?
I've approached big name stores if they're a Whole Foods type store, otherwise mom and pop.
Thank you for replying. I'm brainstorming market strategies, thinking of targeting ethnic restaurants and little grocery stores, specifically Asian/Hispanic as they tend to work mostly with fresh produce. I'm going to take the leap with microgreens and salad mixes, maybe tomatoes my first year
How/ where do you sell your greens in the winter?
how does the grocery sell basil? In clamshells, bags, bulk, etc?
Small bags.
how much in a bag do you see as typical? Our locals sell in half ounce clams.
Carrots, do you get some that just don't get very big like say maybe a 1/4 inch or so?
No, I just don't let them get big.
=)
great vid... how does a novice go about identifying sales channels where one can sell each harvest?
I have a whole chapter on that in my book.
Awesome info! what is the difference between the sunflower seeds you get and ones for bird seed.. they're both black oil, right? and you sterilize them also so does it make a difference? don't know what you pay but I can get 50lbs for 17dlrs(bird seed)
trust me, don't use bird seed for shoots. They're not meant to be consumed by humans. If it's for your own consumption, try it, I guarantee you'll have a shit germination rate.
Where do you get you sunflower seed from?
do you buy seeds for pea shoots from suppliers or have you ever worked with the bulk dried versions meant for eating? based on the per lb pricing of seed compared to yield they aren't that economical for me, even regrowing them I'm only making a couple bucks per pound, not counting my labor. seasonal demand is high for me but I wonder if its worth it sometimes.
ps. my apologies for the content of the question, I know how much you love the "where do you buy your seeds" type. peace and love.
I get micro seeds from Mumms in Canada.
When I watch you harvest your beds I think that eventually your back is going to hurt from that. Consider growing on tables. I think you could make planters from gutters and cover a whole table. You can get plastic top tables 30" by 70" for $50 or so.
We have 60 x 50' beds. That sounds like an insane amount of work and expense to prevent something we like doing, exercise and stretching.
On several videos you talk about making $600 or on a bed during the season. If my calculations are correct, using $20/tray of microgreens, a shelf unit that holds 15-20 trays could make that much per month. Maybe you should just do microgreens :)
That's exactly how our microgreens are done.
If the Grand Solar Minimum predictions come true you may not be able to grow as much outdoors.
I'm not holding my breath on that.
I came up with an ingenious tactic to kill all of these bugs I've been dealing with last night when I entered the portal...I haven't heard anyone else suggest this so I might make a video on it... but I've had issues with root magoot, centipedes, cabbage worms, and ants, mostly eating my roots. I've observed the issue getting worse as the woodchips in my aisles broke down over the season and now that I'm getting ready for fall it's time to do something about it. they stay in the top 3 inches so what I'm going to do is grind up some new leaf mulch and get some new chips and before I apply them im going to coat the leaves and the chips in diatomaceous earth (the food grade omri shit ofc) and this should take care of all the problems. The DE is basically death in a bag, the surface area is so high and sharp any insect that walks across and comes in contact gets infinitely cut and dies, if you look at it under a microscope it looks like black abysmal hell. might be useful, cheap too.
Curtis,
How do you package your micro greens to sell?
question do you get your own personal food from your home farm?
Yes, I eat everything that comes off my farm.
Wow, that's a lot of eating Curtis. You do produce quite a bit.
Ian hahahaha
Should I just buy all my seeds, or dedicate an area to growing the seeds?
Buy your seeds, unless you want to be a seed farmer.
who is the guy photo bombing your video! HA HA too funny.
By the way when are you coming to the uk?
Whenever somebody can organize a solid event and cover the cost to get me out there.
Hey do you have an one on one coaching program teaching this. Thanks
+joe morrow I consult for many farmers all over.
+Urban Farmer Curtis Stone ok great. so how much do you charge for your consult
contact me privately for that information.
Ok what is your email. Thanks
what do you do when you want to have meat on the table
You ask funny questions. Most of them don't make sense to me. When I need meat on the table, I buy it from the farmers market.
looks like were gon have to gitr dun tonight boys and get out the good ol pellet gun and catch us a god damn squirrel, shits good eatin!
I see Jodie got too close to the greens harvester!
A little too close. Me too.
You're planting these crops inches away from the road? With car exhaust and leaking oil and gas going into the soil? I wouldn't find this plot ideal...
Maann most of these greens are great, but over here in Romania they are like soo, sooo cheap. I was lookin to see what basil means and I was what??? This is so cheap and so everywhere. 42% of Romania population lives in the country side and that means they have pretty much everything you are selling may be not as much as you, but enough for them and their sons/daughters families from the city. Of course there are big cities, but still, specially in the season every green plant, is really, really cheap.
Yes, but it also needs to be eaten frequently enough by consumers. Most of the people eat what they have always been eating a few traditional crops. Crops like broccoli, baby cabbage, arugula, all microgreens etc, that are not traditionally grown here, address a quite narrow segment of the market (growing, but still small). So there's a need to educate the consumers as well.
wipe your nose and then touch all the crops ew